Parler, a social media app popular with U.S. conservatives, was sold to digital media conglomerate Starboard for an undisclosed sum and will be shut down temporarily to give its new owner time to roll out a revamped version of the platform.

The move announced by Starboard, formerly Olympic Media, on Friday comes months after the company's parent Parlement Technologies and American rapper Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, scrapped the deal for its sale.

Parler, which launched in 2018, has been reinstated on Google and Apple Inc's app stores after being removed following the U.S. Capitol riots in January 2021.

Parler is one of several social media platforms, from among Gettr, Gab and Truth Social, that have positioned themselves as free-speech alternatives to Twitter Inc prior to its new ownership under billionaire Elon Musk.

  - Reuters